141
Notwithstanding our love for Marx, we would agree with Bakunin's friends in
their assertion that Bakunin was maliciously slandered, had his friend, the historian
of the International, the late Guillaume, proved that all this was mere fiction.
Unfortunately, the Alliance continued to exist and to conduct a stubborn battle with
the International. The lovable and good Bakunin did not hesitate to resort to any
means which he deemed necessary for the accomplishment of his ends. We shall not
hold it against him. Yet it appears ridiculous to see his admirers endeavour to make
of him a man who never had recourse to questionable means and who, as one of his
admirers assures us, was never guilty of any insincerity.
What then was the end which Bakunin felt would justify all the means? The
destruction of bourgeois society, the social revolution -- this was what Bakunin
aspired to. But Marx's goal was precisely the same. The discrepancy must have arisen
in a different domain. In reality this sharp divergence between Marx and Bakunin
involves the methodology of revolution.
First destroy, and then everything will take care of itself. Destroy -- the
sooner, the better. It would be sufficient to stir up the revolutionary intelligentsia and
the workers embittered through want. The only thing needed would be a group
composed of determined people with the demon of revolution in their souls. This was
essentially the whole of Bakunin's teachings. On the surface it resembled Weitling's
teachings. But the resemblance was only superficial, as was its resemblance with
Blanqui's teachings. The crux of the matter was that Bakunin did not want even to
hear of the proletarian seizure of power. He denied any form of political struggle
insofar as it had to be conducted on the ground of the existing bourgeois society and
was concerned with the creation of more favourable conditions for the class
organisation of the proletariat. That was why Marx and all the others who deemed
the political struggle and the organisation of the proletariat for the conquest of
political power indispensable, appeared to Bakunin and his disciples as wretched
opportunists who hindered the coming of the social revolution. That was also why
the Bakuninists were so ready to seize the opportunity of representing Marx as a man
who in order to materialise his ideas would not hesitate to forge the Constitution of
the International. Publicly, in circulars and letters, the Bakuninists abused Marx in
the most vile language; they did not disdain anti-semitic acts, or even such absurd
charges as, for instance, Marx's being the agent of Bismarck.
142
Bakunin had connections in Italy and Switzerland. In the French region of
Switzerland particularly he had many followers. We cannot at this point go into a
detailed study of the causes of this phenomenon. His propaganda was particularly
successful among the imported labourers and the skilled watchmakers who were
beginning to suffer from the competition of the developing industries.
Bakunin came to the Basle Congress backed by a considerable group. As often
happens in such cases, the first skirmish broke out on entirely different grounds.
Bakunin, who had always been vehemently opposed to any opportunism, was
especially pertinacious in demanding the immediate abolition of the inheritance
right. The delegates from the General Council insisted that such a measure was, as
had been indicated in the Communist Manifesto, important merely as a transition
measure which the proletariat would realise on seizing political power. Meanwhile it
would be sufficient to attain a greater tax on wealth and a limited right of
inheritance. Bakunin, however, took neither logic nor circumstances into
consideration. For him this demand was important from the propaganda point of
view. When it came to a vote neither of the resolutions had enough of a majority.
Another conflict arose between Bakunin and Liebknecht. It happened that at the
Basle Congress a new and significant German group made its appearance for the first
time. About this time Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel, after a furious factional
struggle with Schweitzer, had succeeded in organising a separate party which had
adopted at its constituent convention at Eisenach (1869) the programme of the
International. Bakunin's activity in the League for Peace and Freedom and his old
Pan-Slavic views were thoroughly thrashed out and unfavourably criticised in the
central organ of this party. Mehring points out that Marx personally expressed
himself against this severe criticism, but, as we have seen in the Vogt episode, he was
always held responsible for any act of the Marxists. Bakunin utilised the Congress to
avenge himself on Liebknecht. The whole affair ended in a temporary reconciliation.
The next Congress was supposed to take place in Germany. It never convened.
Immediately after the Basle Congress the political atmosphere became so dense, that
an outbreak of war could be expected at any moment. Bismarck, one of the greatest
tricksters in the history of the world, cleverly duped his former teacher, Napoleon.
Having thoroughly prepared Germany for war, he so turned the tables that in view of
the whole world, France appeared the aggressor.
143
When war actually did break out (July 19, 1870), it was quite unexpected.
Neither the French nor the German workers found themselves able to prevent it. A
few days after the declaration of war (July 23) the General Council published the
proclamation written by Marx.
It began with a quotation from the Inaugural Address of the International in
which was condemned
"a foreign policy in pursuit of criminal designs, playing upon
national prejudices and squandering in piratical wars the
people's blood and treasure."
Then followed a scathing indictment of Napoleon. Marx presented a compact
picture of his fight against the International which became even more vehement after
the French Internationalists had increased the scope of their violent agitation against
Napoleon. Whichever side wins, added Marx, the last hour of the Second Empire had
struck. The end of the Empire like its beginning will be a parody.
But was the guilt only Napoleon's? Not in the least. We must bear in mind
that the various governments and the ruling classes of Europe had for eighteen years
aided Bonaparte in playing the comedy of a reconstructed Empire.
Marx, a German himself, severely attacked his own country. From the
German point of view this was a war of defence. But who had placed Germany in a
situation which would require defence? Who evoked in Napoleon the temptation to
attack Germany? Prussia. She had entered into an agreement with Napoleon against
Austria. Should Prussia be defeated, France would flood Germany with French
soldiers. But what had Prussia herself done after her victory over Austria? Instead of
opposing enslaved France with a liberated Germany, she not only preserved all the
charms of the old Prussian regime, but she even grafted onto it all the characteristic
features of the Bonaparte regime.
The first decisive phase of the war terminated with amazing rapidity. The
French army proved to be entirely unprepared. Contrary to the boastful declaration
of the French Minister of War that everything was ready to the last button, it became
evident that if there really were buttons there was nothing to which these buttons
could be attached. In about six weeks the regular French army was defeated. On
September 2, Napoleon had already given up both himself and the great fortress of
Sedan. On September 4, a republic was declared in Paris. Notwithstanding Prussia's
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